Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Time to Bake

It appears I've picked up a nasty habit. Baking.
For most of my life I've been sweet tooth free. I'd like to remain that way. I'm already addicted to salty junk. I don't think I can manage being hooked on the sugary stuff too. This new hobby of mine, is pulling me over to the sweet dark side. It's not like I'm in love with sugar, but if I make a German Chocolate cake, then I'll eat some. If I make two different flavors of cheesecake, and a pineapple upside down cake, well then I'll eat those too. If I happen to make, and sample all of those things in a 24 hour period, well you can see how this becomes a problem.
I'd like to enlist the help of my family to control this behavior. Unfortunately, they are very supportive of my new habit, and all too happy to be enablers. Below are a few of my recent favorites. Best advice I can give? Bake and share.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Winter Garden

In a perfect world I'd own a century old farmhouse on about twenty acres. I'd have fruit and nut trees. I'd grow all the produce we consume. I'd raise laying chickens for fresh eggs. I'd have an herb garden like none other. There would be flower brushes every where.
Let's just say my husband's perfect world doesn't look like mine. His includes a condo and no mowing, so our current home is a compromise. For now my dreams of vast garden spaces are on hold. I'm content to play around in the tiny patch in our backyard. It is from that patch that we grew these:

Oh and trust me these are MUCH tastier than their store bought friends

Monday, December 2, 2013

Big Dreams

"If your dreams don't scare you they are probably not big enough."

When I first heard that statement I instantly thought two things "wow" and "what are my dreams?" I'm not referring to the crazy ones I have at night, believe me, I have enough of those. I'm talking about my ultimate design on life. If I could do, or create anything, be anything, what would I do or be? What would you do? What would your life look like? Would it change? What's holding you back? Those are the questions in my head.

I did pose a similar question to my twelve year old. I won't mention her response, because I don't want to make light of her dreams. Let's just say it involved a career that does not bolster financial security, or security of any kind for that matter. My response to her was, "good now let's think of an idea that will allow you the ability to buy food and eat."

My comment bothered her. She viewed it as an attack on her dream. I decided I'd drop the topic, but after a few moments of silence, the mom in me attempted to reason with her again.

I tried a different approach. I told her, "your dad and I are thinking of starting a llama farm (yes I lied). What do you think about that?"

Truthfully I was being a bit sarcastic an hoped she'd recognize the ridiculousness of her own plans through the wackiness of our llama farm idea. *No offense to any of you who own or dream of such a place.*

Her response: "well that's a bit weird, and unexpected, I'll support you guys." She never made the connection to the lesson I was trying to teach her. That was her honest response, encouragement and support.

So here I sit again thinking about dreams. This time my thoughts are on the importance of encouraging others to pursue them...

About Me

I struggled with the decision to blog. But honestly, an avenue like this, is an irresistible temptation to a would be writer. Eventually they will cave.
With the decision to blog came the question, "what do I write about?" I'm not a "know it all." It came to me, that there are only two things I know well. I know love. I know truth. I've experienced both on the most powerful, and trivial of levels. No matter the message,rant, rave or review, it will be the truth, motivated by love. I hope that hearing it in my voice, adds something new to the conversation.
That said, this is a great way to journal my life. I stink at keeping a journal of the book variety. Yes, I love to write, but it's different somehow.
I share life with a no adjective to describe that level of amazing, sort of man. I get to call him husband. We have two lovely daughters. The girls are eleven, and (gasp) 15 months old. I'll have a lot to say here. I'll try not to write anything I don't want my girls to read. I want to truly reflect my God. He is the source of everything good in me. He's the ultimate example of, and has taught me all I know, about love, and truth.
Thanks for stopping by. Hang out a while.